BDSA Adds Ohio as 15th Retail Sales Tracking Market

BDSA has expanded Retail Sales Tracking & Menu Analytics to include the Ohio Medical market! In recent years, many have turned their focus to the booming Midwest; and for good reason. The Midwest markets have delivered exceptional performance. For example, sales growth in the Michigan market has held strong enough to outpace price compression, and the Missouri market has tripled in sales since its launch of Adult-Use last year. The Ohio Medical market is no exception. BDSA estimates that the Ohio Medical Program $480 million in 2023, and the state is on track to total $690 million in 2024, with $250 million of this coming from adult-use sales.

Medical Legalization and Regulations

Ohio legalized medical cannabis legalized in 2016 with the passage of HB 523 and legal sales began in January 2019. The bill allowed for a wide range of qualifying conditions but included restrictions on home cultivation and combustion as an allowed form of consumption, which are still in place today. Pre-roll products are not sold in the market. However, flower is available; with the expectation it should be vaped and not combusted. 58 dispensary licenses were initially approved by the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy, which went on to award 70 more licenses in May 2022.

Adult-Use Legalization

Cannabis reform continued with the expansion to adult-use legalization on November 7, 2023. With the passage of ballot Issue 2, Ohio voters legalized the possession, consumption, and home cultivation of cannabis, with the law going into effect on December 7, 2023. The Issue also called for the creation of a regulated market, stipulating that the first adult-use business licenses must be issued within 9 months of the law going into effect. As of June 28, 2024, 20 existing medical dispensaries had been issued licenses to sell adult-use, and sales are expected to commence in the coming weeks after state inspections are completed.

Brand Landscape

Multi-State brands have a sizable presence in the Ohio market. BDSA is tracking 149 brands in Ohio, of which 74% are multi-state brands. However, the sales share of Multi-State vs. Ohio-only brands paints a more balanced picture, with just about half of sales coming from Ohio-only brands. In fact, eight of the top 10 best-selling brands are exclusively sold in Ohio.

Product Landscape

The Ohio market is unique compared to most other markets, due to its prohibition on combusting flower. Because of that, the pre-roll category is absent from the current product mix, while flower makes up a larger dollar market share compared to the aggregate of medical channels.

Flower and vape hold a dominant market share in Ohio, with a 51%- and 24%-dollar market share in Q2 2023, respectively. Extracts hold a smaller dollar market share (5%) compared to other medical-only states (8%).

With just a few years of legal sales in the books, the Ohio market has laid a strong foundation. Legal sales in 2022 totaled $480 million, a +26% increase from 2021 total sales. BDSA projects Ohio to launch Adult-Use in 2024, delivering $250 million that year. As a result, the total legal Ohio Market is anticipated to reach $690 million in 2024 and $2.1 billion in 2028. This sets Ohio as one of the fastest-growing legal markets in the country.

Check out the latest BDSA 5-Year Market Forecast webinar to get more insights on the future of the legal cannabis industry. Request a demo to learn more about BDSA products & services.